To say I’m excited would be a massive understatement. We’ve both wanted to head back to the Kimberley and even further north for some time, and now its booked in!
In May, we are heading away with our Isuzu Dmax and Camper trailer for 12 weeks. I’ve taken long service leave, annual leave and even some unpaid leave from work, and we are heading north with our nearly 2 year old boy.
UPDATE: We are back, and you can read the trip report here – 3 months travelling Australia with a 4WD, Camper Trailer and Toddler.
We are taking the new 4WD and our camper trailer
Where are we going?
We are heading up past Newman, Broome and Kununurra. We’ve got Katherine, Lorella Springs, Mataranka, Dundee Beach, Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield, the Gibb River Road, Cleaverville, Ningaloo Station and a few other places on the cards.
We are doing the Gibb River Road again
Who’s going?
At the moment, the bulk of the trip is just going to be us – Sarah, Oliver and myself. My brother and sister inlaw are going to drag the offroad boat trailer up for the last few weeks along the coastline.
How much driving will there be?
There’s no escaping the size of Australia. I estimate we will do about 14,000km. That’s about 166km a day on average. We’ve tried to do some bigger days of driving, and stay longer at less places. This is partly due to having Oliver with us, but moving too often is tiring.
You can be sure there will be plenty of 4WD tracks!
Where are we staying?
We are pretty much self sufficient now, which means we have a bit more freedom with where we camp. We have a mix of free camping, farm stays, caravan parks, stations and national park stays. We usually prefer to bush camp away from the crowds, but you don’t always have that choice!
Getting the Dmax and camper trailer ready
With the addition of the canopy on the rear of the Dmax, there’s a lot more work to be done. We are going to do some minor modifications to the camper trailer, including building a pantry and moving a few storage things around, but its almost ready to go. I will be changing the hubs to 6 stud, and fitting the same tyres as on the Dmax
The Dmax has a lot more work required – dual batteries, mounting of the fridge and draws in the rear, bull bar, winch, bash plates, brake controller, solar panel, snorkel, breathers, UHF, secondary fuel filter and a few other bits and bobs.
Time’s a ticking; we need to get stuck into it!
Help us out!
We are going to spend a heap of time photographing, taking videos and writing information down that you might find useful. What would you like to see, and know about? Where should we go? Any hidden gems?
See you out there!
